Last May I was wandering around the stands on the last day of the awful Telford Hemp Fair. Nobody liked that venue. Vendors hated it, and punters couldn’t find a pub for a pub lunch after their travel to the arse end of nowhere for love or money. I’d been talking to Marco from ‘Healing Yourself’ magazine and some others. One of them asked Marco if he’d come across the King Of Nepal’s stand yet. He hadn’t, so we all went over for a bit of a gander, as you do.

I’d passed this guy a few times over the three day event, and apart from some books and a device I’d seen before many times in Mila’s Pollinator Co. I couldn’t see much to get excited about. The guy looked like an old renegade smuggler to me. My guess was he was ‘doing a Howard Marks’. As for the cumbersome looking hash making device, I’d been given the impression that this old thing had been made obsolete by Mila’s Ice-O-Later bags back in 1998.

I’d been told by Mila herself on a summery afternoon in 2003, while sitting and smoking at the big table in the Pollinator Co., that the idea for the bags came up when a group of folken sitting around the very same table one winter afternoon devised the water bag extraction method between them after looking at improving the Pollinator technique. That had to be the winter of 1997.

One night in 2003 whilst sitting chatting about Anne Bonney’s book ‘The Beginning Of Cannabis And Coffee Shops In Amsterdam’ (2002) at the Hemp Hotel bar Mila told me her parents had lived in Liverpool’s Abacromby between the war years of 1943-1945 and that she had been born in Liverpool’s St Stephen’s. In 1967 she was running Kink 22 a ‘tea-house’ where buyers and sellers would meet to talk business and hang out. After it was closed in 1968 Mila went to India where she stayed until 1971 studying local hash making techniques, returning to Holland briefly before deciding to return to India to bring up her children. In 1988 she returned to Amsterdam and by 1992 had invented the Pollinator, although it would be another two years before it was officially named so. In May 1998 she opened the Hemp Hotel.

Still on my apprentice learning curve in 1998 during the High Times Cannabis Cups (won that year by Barneys from the work of a Liverpool horticulturalist) I was enjoying my first stay at the Hemp Hotel during which I first met Mila socially. I was informed that she was in fact owner of the Hemp Hotel as well as running The Pollinator Co.. I got talking to two other Hemp Hotel guests from America and spent most of my time showing one or both around the city and generally having a good time. Free Rob Cannabis had the room opposite mine the last couple of days of my stay. It was also the year Patrick Mathews chose to write ‘Cannabis Culture: A Journey Through Disputed Territory’ (1999).

In his book Mathews documents the politics of 1998 with great reference to Dr Geoffrey Guy, GW Pharmaceuticals, and the 1998 High Times Cannabis Cup. Strangely though he visited the Hemp Hotel and spent Awards night at R.C. Clarke’s ‘Hashish’ (1998) launch there is no mention of Mila, or The Pollinator Co. in his book.

According to Mathews Dr Geoffrey Guy comes from a background of obstetrics until he became Clinical Trials Co-ordinator of French company Pierre Fabre in the south of France. Pierre Fabre employed Guy to promote a new range of synthesised drugs in the U.K. and prepare information for the Medicines Control Agency. Mathews states,

“The experience showed him that modern synthesised single molecule medicines were being promoted for reasons that did not necessarily relate to their effectiveness.” 1

During the 1990’s Guy developed a plant medicine for eczema but it couldn’t be licensed because it varied from batch to batch. Guys former company, Phytopharm, created a standardised form and sold the license to Pfizer for £32,000,000. Guys interest in cannabis medicines was stimulated at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in 1997, shortly following which he made contact with HortaPharm in Holland. Seemingly Dr Geoffrey Guy was at the 1997 High Times Cannabis Cup, and it would appear he’d done his research. Joe Pietri in his ‘Ice Wars’ chapter of ‘The King Of Nepal’ (2007) records that Reinhard Delp, inventor of XTR 420 a revolutionary new water separation hash making device, was told by Dr Geoffrey Guy, “he would never have to work again.” 2

As I talked during the week of the 1998 Cups to bar staff, regulars, guests, and some prominent Cannabusiness personalities including Luc from Paradise Seeds selling single seeds in a bag that came with a 1g free sample of the brand new Sensi Star he was too late to enter for the Cup that year, Felix of Owl Seeds, persons from Dutch Passion, local character Wild Bill, and mixed with Steve Hagar, Kyle Kushman, Eagle Bill, the Dronkers brothers, Robert Connel Clarke (who made his official book launch of ‘Hashish’ in the bar on Thursday the Awards night), Jack Herer, and John Sinclair I was informed about the Ice-O-Later. We were told that Mila had invented it, and held the patent on it. One of the American’s walked over to the Pollinator Co., still at Cornelis Trooststraat and close to the Pax Party House, to see a demonstration with me on Monday 23rd November 1998. Ice-o-later kits became a very hot item during the week and the guy I took over bought one on that visit to try out.

Ice hash was still almost unheard of in coffee shops and as I remember there was a greater choice of imported hashish. The first coffee shop I remember selling un-pressed resin produced by the water extraction method was The Grey Area. Grey Mist Crystals caused quite a sensation during the ’98 Cups. They were something rare and special and in limited supply, sold at 25 Guilders per gram, one gram per person.

Ed Rosenthal was round and about town, he dropped into the Hemp Hotel on the 22nd during my breakfast on Sunday morning looking for Mila. As he left I was made aware that his name was not to be mentioned in the bar because he had fallen out with Mila. The story I was told was that Ed Rosenthal had agreed to put money into the Hemp Hotel ‘concept’ but wanted to make the place very upmarket and ‘designer’ with computers and television in every room. I was told a difference of opinion about the likely clienteles of the Hotel and their likely requirements had led to an argument which resulted in Ed backing out of the deal.

There was also some talk one night about how R.C. Clarke had only finished writing his ‘Hashish’ book a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was just late night bar talk at the time. The other thing of note that year was de Dampkring’s withdrawal from the Coffee Shop competition for spiritual and ethical reasons which basically amounted to resenting High Times turning Amsterdam into a cannabis theme park to suit the interest of seed companies.

In March 1999 I was told by a coffee shop worker on the Haarlemmersstraat that Arjan from the Greenhouse had paid the entire High Times crew hotel bill for the 1998 Cups. I learned from another source that The Greenhouse entry Super Silver Haze had been taken along with other samples from competing smaller coffee shops for scientific analysis. The results said that the Greenhouse sample contained less THC than the others, which backed up a story circulating the Cups that Greenhouse were ‘tumbling’ their weed one revolution in a Pollinator before bagging it for sale, skimming off the best resins to produce hash.

I remember that on the Wednesday night of the ’98 Cups a group of us were sitting around the Hemp Hotel bar giving our own marks out of ten as we went through our combined collections of samples. When it came around to the Super Silver Haze around eight of us fell into heavy discussion over its merits that paused some time around 4:00am when the bar closed and continued next morning at breakfast and into the following afternoon canvassing random folken as we passed through the day. Eventually around 2:30pm, after allowing for the twenty or so other folks we’d asked, we came to the vastly inflated score of 5/10.

During the Cups in 2002 I was made aware of a scandal involving Bubble Man who I was told by several members of staff had stolen Mila’s idea, found her supplier, and was simply re-labelling the bags for sale. I later was told that an American character I’d seen hanging about the Hemp Hotel bar over the last couple of years with predilection for neo-ethno-hippie hemp sack chic, and identified to me as Mark Rose, had been aiding Mila produce Ice-o-later kits. I was told that he and Bubble Man had simply stolen her supplier and attached their own labels to her product.

The Bubble Bag thing became a phenomena backed by all the stoner press of the day in every Cannabusiness land across the globe. He had a prominent stand in the main hall at the 2002 Cups whilst Mila had trouble over her table allocation which had been ‘misplaced’ and ended up tucked away downstairs in a corner of the Council room. At Council on Monday the 25th I was stood next to her before she stormed the open mic from Kyle Kushman and threatened to sue High Times over photos that were published in an article promoting Bubble Man.

High Times by way of an apology put together a small article on Mila called ‘Lady Of Hashish’, March 25th, 2003. In it Mila states,

“The only people that were ahead of me were Sam the Skunkman and the inventor of the Extractor, a big expensive machine, but the first to use a screen water and ice.” 3

The article ended with directions the old address of the Pollinator Co. on Cornelis Trooststraat, instead of the new address at Nieuwe Herengraht where I was told the interview for the article took place during my visit between 27th March and 1st April 2003.

Studying the 2002 official High Times Cup booklet I noticed that The Pollinator Co. had been listed on the map at its old address and not it’s new one, now on Nieuwe Herengraht, although a large add in the front of the very same booklet gave the new address. The 2003 booklet listed it on the site of coffee shop Amnesia.

So rapid was Bubble Man’s rise to stoner stardom that people began to whisper about him being backed by ‘big money’. Strangely, Mila’s Ice-O-Later had almost no press coverage at all. During the Cups that year Mila was in a notably angry mood. I remember folk picking their times to speak with her and do business. The friendly relations and the doing good business vibe I’d witnessed during the ’98 Cup between Mila and the High Times folk seemed to have turned decidedly sour.

It appeared to myself and guests staying at the Hemp Hotel that this was due to the Bubble Man being backed by High Times, and we assumed that the whispers of ‘big money’ backing referred to them. We put it down to High Times reflecting American main stream colonial political culture in its desire to have it appear that the American’s/Canadian’s had come up with the idea. I also found out that Mila had licensed a Canadian company to manufacture Pollinators and had noticed that while the Canadian company was heavily promoted in High Times, The Pollinator Co., Mila, and the Hemp Hotel, were almost never mentioned.

I’d seen the piece in High Times on the XTR 420 device in the May 1998 issue, and had the impression that it was something invented by the Pollinator Co.. I remember this thing caused a stir, and I also remember just how swiftly Ice-O-later bags became a sensation, and that this device gathered dust on display in the Pollinator Co. for quite some time. It sort of baffled me that one device had been completely shelved while the Ice-O-Later was going through some further developments. I also remember that nobody seemed to pay much attention to the device, all the talk was of the Ice-O-Later method. The one time I remember asking about it I was told that it had a problem separating the resins.

Back in Telford I’d looked the old renegade smuggler in the eye I asked,

“So what’s the sketch here then fella ?”

That was all this guy needed. He went straight into a well rehearsed polemic that strayed dangerously into the realm of ranting. My nut case alarm went off like a police siren and I noticed how fast Marco and the others had split like cartoon mice when the cat appears, in different directions all at once.

Oh shit !

I was facing this wild eyed, occasionally foaming at the mouth renegade, who was so into his speal he seemed not to notice I was the only one left listening. This boy was on a mission.

I couldn’t get a word in edgeways for a full quarter of an hour but as I listened I began to understand what it was he was saying. Actually, he was very direct. Simply put; his friend, Reinhard Delp, was the one who invented the device I’d seen in the Pollinator Co.. It was one of 125 taken to Amsterdam for the 1997 Cannabis Cup. The inventor had taken it to Mila and signed an exclusive deal. He also gave demonstrations how to use it calling the end product Ice Hash. Allegedly, Mila broke her contract under pressure from Sam the Skunkman, Ed Rosenthal, Mel Frank, and others. Between them, and with the help of R.C. Clarke, they came up with the Ice-O-Later method, a step backwards in the hash making process that this device made unnecessary. The only screening undertaken in the process of this device is done with the end product, which retains all natural oils and terpiniods, through a five micron screen. Contrary to ‘bag’ methods fresh material straight from the plant can be used without drying, grinding, or beating. I never could figure out why anyone would want or need to have seven different types of the same hash.

Allegedly, Dr Geoffrey Guy also got in on the act, and Sam Skunkman is said to be now running GW Pharmaceuticals research gardens. According to Pietri, a back door deal was done with what he calls The Cabal and GW Pharmaceuticals over the ice extraction ‘bag’ method and certain seed bank varieties in the production of Sativex.

“Part of their deals was a million dollar transaction that included their marijuana varieties !” 4

Pietri claims The Cabal aims at keeping Rheinhard Delf’s invention quiet. He claims that Arjan is part of the Cabal, and considering R.C. Clarke wrote most of ‘Hashish’ in the Greenhouse first coffee shop on Tolstraat, just round the corner from the original Pollinator Co. shop on the very site of former Positronics 5, it might be something to consider.

Joe opened his book and I was shown the documentation to back what he’d just told me. The whole story was in the new chapter of his book ‘The King Of Nepal’. I picked up interest,

“Fancy a beer ?”, he asked.

“Sure.”

Up in the bar at a more relaxed pace I went through it all again with him. A lot of what he was saying made sense to me and tied in with some of my own lines of thought. He had the story, he had the documents, and he has the patent on the Ice Hash method. This year the laws changed in Europe allowing him the ability to take everybody selling and making ‘bags’ to court, and believe me, this man is on a mission to kill the ‘bag’ industry stoned dead. I asked why I hadn’t read or heard anything about this before and he told me that at the last Wembley Hemp Fair 2005 he had been prevented from speaking by Weed World.

I enjoyed a roast turkey dinner with Joseph and two Canadian friends at the Holiday Inn after the show that night. Joe’s tale was some story. I’ve heard some wild ones, spun by experts, and, had I not been at that Cannabis Cup in 1998 and remembered that R.C. Clarke held his book signing in the Hemp Hotel bar, that Ed Rosenthal was about but not to be mentioned because he had fallen out with Mila, that High Times folk were all about both bar and Pollinator Co. talking ‘business’, or that on any one given night that week the Hemp Hotel bar was packed with cannabis personalities, I might have quickly dismissed this as a case of sour grapes.

I decided to monitor any developments because I reasoned the story, documentation, and a published book with allegations begging for law suits had to turn up mentions somewhere else sooner or later, and after the Telford Hemp Fair I rather thought it would be sooner. The absolute silence since then has been deafening. Which is odd, don’t you think ?

Then, in February 2008 a notice went up on The Pollinator Co.’s web site saying they no longer supported the use of Ice-o-later or Bubblator extraction methods and withdrew them from online sale. Via telephone it was confirmed by a worker in the Pollinator Co. that there some problems over the patent and although the Ice-o-later and Bubblator were no longer sold online you could still purchase them at the shop itself on Nieuwe Herengraht.

I e-mailed Joe, and asked if it was anything to do with him. He promptly wrote back and said yes it was. He said that Mila/Pollinator Co. were facing legal actions from Canada and Germany with more to follow. The first case had already been won against a German shop owner, and he was waiting for a settlement in BC Vancouver before sending out a “tsunami” of other legal actions against manufacturers and distributors with Bubble Bags and Green Harvest “top of the list” and “every coffee shop” who has, or is, selling Ice hashish next.

During the writing of this article I’ve come across a lot of interesting little facts as I’ve gone through my notes, books, and videos. In particular footage from Channel 4’s ‘Pot Night’ broadcast in 1995. During an evening of cannabis related programmes one show stood out. Not because of the dick ’ead Scottish presenter, or because of the lovely footage around Warmoesstraat and the Centrum Red Light District, but because this was the first time I’d seen water separation of resin glands, demonstrated by Wernard Bruining of Positronics, before it was driven into bankruptcy through staff theft. The credits of the show, ‘Amsterdam Nights’, include a contributor credited only as Sam.

Here is Joe’s story. What follows is taken in whole from the ‘Ice Wars’ chapter of ‘The King Of Nepal’ published in 2007.

Viper 27/5/2008

1. Patrick Mathews, p.59, ‘Medi-Pot’, Cannabis Culture A Journey Through Disputed Territory 1999.

2. Joe Pietri, p.170, ‘Ice Wars’, The King Of Nepal, 2007.

3. High Times, ‘Lady Of Hashish’, March 25th 2003.

4. Joeseph R. Pietri , p.171, Chapter 4, Ice Wars !, The King Of Nepal, 2007.

5. When Positronics went bust due to staff theft Mila took over the Positronics shop space and set up as After The Harvest/The Pollinator Co./The Botanic Herbalist in 1997.

(3,227 wds) - as submitted to Ed Connel, Editor of 'Stoner' magazine.

At this point the entire 'Ice Wars' chapter of Joe Pietri's 'King Of Nepal' book was to follow my article in Issue 3 of 'Stoner' magazine.

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First Published 22/6/2008 by Viperslair.co.uk

All images & text, except where stated, ©Viperslair.co.uk 2008

All rights reserved.

Any un-authorized publication of texts, parts of texts, or images, will result in legal action, and this particularly applies to Enigma Publishing - unless I get paid. Publishing permission in writing, on paper, can be obtained from the Viperslair.co.uk Editor.

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